Further down the rabbithole..

Picking up where I left off in this previous post, my exposure and awareness to k-pop idols grew exponentially when I was exposed to variety shows. I was well on my way to becoming a hardcore SONE (Girls' Generation fandom name, pronounced so-won), and thus began gobbling up whatever content I could get my hands on. Variety show appearances are a good place to start getting to know your favorite idols because they can show their funny or dorky sides, as well as those ubiquitous "personal talents" which would supposedly further endear them to the public, often at the risk of humiliating themselves in the process. 

So I watched them, and did I watch a LOT! 😜 But among all of these, one show made quite an impact on me and opened my eyes to the wonderful world of multifandom:

Invincible Youth (Season 1) had a basic premise (from my understanding) of taking representative female idols from different groups and letting them live in the countryside on weekends doing local chores, all the while creatively promoting their respective groups. It had a good mix of veteran and rookie idols that featured Narsha (Brown Eyed Girls), Yuri and Sunny (Girls' Generation), Hara (KARA), HyunA (4Minute), Hyomin (T-ARA), and Sunhwa (SECRET). Take note that they actually had TWO members of SNSD on the show, which gave it ample firepower to rule the airwaves during its timeslot.

I guess the show was really effective in its role in giving these idols a platform to promote their groups, because I eventually found myself looking them all up and wound up becoming a fan of most of them (Sorry BEG and SECRET 😅).

 

Shows like this seem to have more potential impact for rookie groups (at the time) like T-ARA and SECRET, as it was their chance to put their teams on the map. Episode after episode, you would find Hyomin tirelessly making a fool out of herself in order to gain screen time and generate buzz for T-ARA. I wish I could say the same for Sunhwa, who had the unfortunate reputation of always being edited out. 😜

This really pulled the trigger on my sense of fandom and soon I was also a member of the T-ARA internatinal fansite Tiaradiadem.com, which further unlocked more fandom content for me to spazz over. 😅

Although I have confined myself to actively stan only SNSD (and T-ARA later on), I managed to delve into the different active groups at the time, thus creating a healthy mix for my K-pop appetite.

After a couple of years of actively fanboying, I had identified myself as a SONE, and whatever the hell the male T-ARA fans really called themselves (I'm sorry, but calling your fandom QUEEN's just won't cut it for the dudes 😜).

I guess that pretty much sums up my journey down the rabbithole. Will be delving into specifics from this point on. I honestly can't wait to get certain stuff out of the way so I will be able to discuss more current content, especially since this is the first time I will be stanning a group from debut (STAYC girls, its going down!😅)

- B. Oppa